Group of Over 500 Artists Publishes Manifesto Repudiating Regina Duarte’s Statements

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A group of more than five hundred artists, intellectuals and cultural producers has released a manifesto repudiating the words and attitudes of Regina Duarte, national Secretary of Culture of the Jair Bolsonaro government.

In an interview with CNN last week, Regina Duarte defended the military dictatorship, and downplayed the importance of deaths by Covid-19, including those of fellow artists.

The manifesto was endorsed by actors, singers, composers, authors, screenwriters, filmmakers, visual artists, photographers, and dancers.

They state that they are part of the majority of citizens who advocate democracy and support the independence of institutions to enforce the 1988 Constitution.

The group asks for respect for the dead and for those who “fight for their own survival in a country devastated by the pandemic and by the nefarious inefficiency of public power” and says that “it does not tolerate the crimes committed by any government, that it repudiates corruption and torture and that it does not want the return of the military dictatorship”.

In the manifesto, the group also states that it does not accept “the repeated attacks on art, science and the press and that it does not tolerate the destruction of the cultural sector or any threat to freedom of expression.

The manifesto ends by saying: “She does not represent us”.

The full manifesto:

“Brazil, May 8th, 2020

We are Brazilian artists and are part of the majority of citizens who advocate democracy and support the independence of institutions to enforce the 1988 Constitution.

We are part of the majority who understand the seriousness of the moment we are living and we ask for respect for the dead and for those who fight for their own survival in a country devastated by the pandemic and by the nefarious inefficiency of public power.

We are part of the majority of Brazilians who do not tolerate the crimes committed by any government, who repudiate corruption and torture and who do not want the return of the military dictatorship.

We are part of the majority that does not accept the repeated attacks on art, science, and the press, and that does not tolerate the destruction of the cultural sector or any threat to freedom of expression.

As artists, intellectuals and cultural producers, we form the majority who repudiate the words and attitudes of Regina Duarte as Secretary of Culture.

She does not represent us”.

Source: G1

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